HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
MONDAY, April 13, 1885.The House met at 10 o'clock a. m.
The session was opened with prayer by Rev. B. Wilson Smith, a Representative from the county of Tippecanoe.
The Speaker directed the roll to be called, and, that service being performed, ninety-one members were reported present and answering to their names.
RENTAL TO MARION COUNTY.
Mr. JAMESON offered a concurrent resolution, which was adopted, that $1,500 be paid to the Board of Commissioners of Marion County for gas, fuel and extra rooms furnished this General Assembly.
CLOSING COURTESIES.
Mr. FRAZEE offered a resolution, which was adopted, tendering the thanks of the House to the Speaker for the able, courteous and impartial manner in which he discharged his duties.
Resolved, That the thanks of the House are due and hereby tendered to the Speaker, Hon. Charles L. Jewett, for the able, courteous and impartial manner in which he has discharged the duties of presiding officer of the Fifth General Assembly. We assure him that our good wishes will follow him wherever his lines may fall or his lot in life be cast, being fully assured that he will be equal to every emergency, and fully equipped for any station of honor and trust to which the people may call him.
On motion by Mr. COPELAND a committee of two was appointed, to act with a like committee on the part of the Senate, to learn what further communication, if any, the Governor desires to make to this General Assembly.
The committee subsequently reported that the Governor had no message to transmit further than that he tenders this General Assembly his kindest wishes and his congratulations for the many excellent laws that have been enacted.
Mr CREOELIUS offered a resolution, which was adopted, that the thanks of the House be tendered all the employes for efficiency and courtesy.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
On motion by Mr. AKIN the Webster Dictionary presented to the House at the commencement of the session, was presented to the Speaker.
THE NEXT REPUBLICAN HOUSE.
Mr. HAWORTH offered the following:
Resolved, That the State Librarian be instructed that in preparing the Hall for the Legislature two years hence that fifty-five seats be set apart at the right hand of the Speaker's chair for the Republican members thereof.
It was adopted.
THE SPEAKER.
Mr. Smith, of Tippecanoe, offered the following:
Resolved, That the House with great pleasure present to our Speaker, the Hon. Charles L. Jewett, the gavel which he has wielded so faithfully and so well during the regular and extra session of this Assembly.
It was adopted.
Mr. DITTEMORE (at 3 o'clock) moved that the House adjourn sine die. Before announcing the vote on the motion Speaker Jewett addressed the House as follows:
GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE - The legislative possibilities of this House of Representatives are at an end, and in a few moments it will have passed away forever. Its achievements and failures will have become part of the history of the State, and stand submitted to the deliberate and, let us hope, just judgment of our fellow citizens. I will not at this time attempt to review in detail the laws which henceforth shall remain as the monument of your labors. Nor have I the presumption to here advance my own opinion of their necessity or merit. It is sufficient now to declare, what all who hear me know to be the truth - that this House convened in the face of grave responsibilities and an enormous amount of labor. No general or specific appropriation bill had been enacted page: 178[View Page 178] for four years. The new State-house required intelligent legislation to the end that its early completion might be assured, and the State protected from loss or extravagence in connection with it. An extensive and expensive system of asylums for the insane were half finished and without means for completion, and doubts were expressed as to the proper course of the State in regard to them. The redistribution of the Congressional and Legislative representation, always a difficult and delicate task, had to be made. Numerous minor investigations were to be made, and one State institution was subject to an appalling scandal which compelled patient consideration and demanded radical treatment. Many creditors of the State clamored for the payment of debts which bad been so long neglected that the credit of this proud State was in danger of ranking as that of a common cheat. The questions of the proper aid to be given to the State institutions and of the policy of the State in regard to one or two of them were important and pressing. The regulation of railroad, telegraph and telephone companies, the questions of damages and gravel roads, of fees and salaries, the regulation of mines, the protection of citizens in equal rights, the relief of the laboring classes from the oppression sometimes practiced by employers, the question as to another Court of Appeals - these and numerous others pressed upon your notice and demanded consideration I believe that the published volume of the acts of 1885 will, in a large measure, repel the disposition to criticise the action of this House, which is most indulged in by those who have the least information on the subject. During our deliberations there have naturally arisen conflicts of views and struggles for the supremacy of rival theories. Such contention is inseparably incident to legislation. It is often sharp and sometimes bitter, and while I believe we have had the smallest possible amount of it, we must have been more than human to have escaped it altogether.
Addressing you for the last time as your Speaker, I desire to again thank you for my elevation to it, and the consideration you have shown me while occupying it. If I have at times seemed arbitrary or tyranical, rest assured that it arose from no wish to be so. Such would have been a shabby return for all your goodness and forbearance toward me during the tireful days that have gone forever. Looking into your faces, both members, officers and gentlemen of the press, I see not one to whom I am not indebted in some degree of gratitude. It is an obligation I may never hope to discharge, but it shall, nevertheless, rest always upon my heart in all its generous force.
So with a heart full of pleasant thoughts of all of you I take my final leave or you as your Speaker, but with the hope that I may often meet each of yon as a private citizen. And in so doing I adopt in all sincerity what I deem the sweetest words of gratitude:
- "With all my love I do commend me to you,
- And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
- May do to prove his love and friending to you -
- God willing, shall not lack."
And so the House of Representatives of the Fifty-fourth General Assembly adjourned without day.
BILLS PASSED AND APPROVED.
The following bills passed both Houses and have been signed by the Governor. Many of them have emergency clauses, and those not so provided will go into effect with their publication. There are yet several in the hands of the Governor unsigned:
Legalizing elections and official acts of the Board of Trustees of the town of Rockport.
Legalizing the incorporation and elections of the town of Owensville, Gibson County.
Appropriating $60,000 to pay the expenses of the extra session of the present Legislature.
Amending Section 2,108 of the Revised Statute of 1881, so as to outlaw the English sparrow.
Reorganizing the Soldiers' Orphans' Home and Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children, and providing that three Trustees, one of them a woman and the others honorably discharged Union soldiers, shall be appointed by the Governor as a board of management.
Legalizing contracts and proceedings of the Board of Trustees of the town of Brownstown.
Legalizing acts of the town of Cannelton.
Regulating the term of office of County Commissioners.
Requiring the full monthly payment of employes engaged in manual or mechanical labor, and making the claims of such employes preferred claims.
Authorizing the appointment of shorthand reporters for Courts of Record in counties with 10,000 or more inhabitants, and fixing the compensation at not more than $5 for each day actually employed.
Prohibiting gambling on fair ground.
Prohibiting Sunday base ball playing where any fee is charged, and prescribing a fine of not more that $25 for violation.
Prohibiting forced contributions of money or property from employes by corporations or their officers.
Amending Sections 1 and 2 and 3 of an act entitled "An act to create the Forty-third Judicial District, and to provide for holding terms of court in the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Forty-third Circuits."
Authorizing County Commissioners to make suitable provision from the County Treasury for the education of pauper children.
Defining the Tenth, Twelfth and Forty-ninth Judicial Districts, fixing the times and terms of courts and providing for the appointment of a Judge and two Prosecuting Attorneys.
Levying a tax and authorizing a loan of $500,000 for the completion of the new State House.
Legalizing the incorporation and acts of the town of Ligonier, Noble County.
Legalizing certain acts of the Common Council of Lawrenceburg.
Permitting amendment of pleadings before Justices' Courts, before or during trial, new proof will not thereby be required by the opposing party.
Appropriating $465 to pay the claim of John D. Works, Gustave Hustsleiner, and the heirs of George B. Sleeth.
Defining the Twenty-fifth Judicial Circuit, creating the Forty-sixth, fixing time of courts and providing for the appointment of a Judge for the page: 179[View Page 179] Forty-sixth and a Prosecuting Attorney for the Twenty-fifth.
Legalizing certain sales of real estate by commissioners in proceedings by an executor or an administrator to sell such real estate.
Authorizing a temporary loan of $600,000 and making provision for funding the outstanding loan at a lower rate of interest.
Abolishing offices of City Treasurer and City Assessor in cities of over 70,000 people, and providing by the discharge of their duties by the County Treasurer and Township Assessor respectively.
Legalizing the incorporation of the town of Alamo, Montgomery County.
Legalizing the incorporation of the town of New Haven, Allen County.
Providing for the incorporation of fish ladders, defining misdemeanors and providing penalties.
Making the State Board of Health to consist of five members, instead of four, and providing for the election of a Secretary of the board, who shall serve two years.
Legalizing the construction of the Daniel Heath Free Gravel Road.
Authorizing municipal corporations to purchase and hold real estate for sanitary purposes, and legalizing purchases heretofore made.
Fixing time of holding courts in the Thirty-fourth Judicial Circuit, and repealing laws in conflict therewith.
Amending Section 5,200 of the Revised Statutes of 1881 so that claims not exceeding $50 for work performed at any time within the previous six months, by laboring men or mechanics, shall be treated as preferred debts against any corporation or person failing, assigning or having his business suspended by creditors.
Prohibiting a tax levy of mere than thirty-three cents on the hundred dollars in counties having a voting population of more than 25,000.
Prohibiting the buying and selling of votes, and prescribing penalties of disfranchisement and ineligibility to office.
Gerrymander the Congressional Districts.
Fixing the time of holding Circuit Courts in the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
Concerning the building of bridges across boundary streams between counties.
Appropriating $30,000 to the Indiana University.
Reapportioning the State for legislative purposes.
Proposing an amendment to Section 2 of the Constitution so that no county officer except Surveyor shall be eligible to a re-election for the term of office immediately succeeding a term already served by him.
Authorizing County Commissioners in certain cases to construct free turnpikes instead of free bridges, and authorizing boards to pay for bridges built within the corporate limits of towns and cities.
Preventing the spread of Canada thistles.
Providing for the reading in open court of the full record of each day's proceedings in the Circuit Courts.
Fixing time of holding court in the Thirty-fifth Judicial Circuit.
Validating acknowledgments taken before officers whose commissions had theretofore expired.
Extending for thirty years mining corporations existing before the State Constitution took effect.
Legalizing continuances of terms of courts heretofore and after this time beyond the expiration of the time fixed by law, where trials may be in progress at the time of such expiration.
Giving powers concerning libraries in certain cities, formerly held by Town Trustees, to Common Councils after such towns may have become cities
Legalizing certain acts of Brown County Commissioners.
Fixing time of holding and length of terms of courts in the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-eighth, Forty-sixth and Second Judicial Circuits.
Legalizing certain sales of real estate made without appraisement by majority votes of Common Councils of incorporated cities.
Appropriating $600,000 for the completion of the three new Asylums for the insane.
Creating the Forty-eighth Judicial Circuit and fixing the time of holding courts in the Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth and Forty-sixth Circuits.
Granting certain rights and franchises to the Union Railway Company of Indianapolis.
Concerning drainage: repealing certain laws, prohibiting the obstruction of drains, etc.
Increasing the bond of the State Treasurer to $700,000.
Appropriating $125,000 to defray the expenses of the regular session of the General Assembly.
Appropriating $3,000 to repair that portion of the Asylum for the Insane damaged by fire.
Prohibiting aliens from holding titles to real estate in Indiana.
Providing for the removal of obstructions from highways.
Appropriating from the general fund for the salaries and expenses of State officers and deputies, Supreme Court Judges and officers, Circuit Judges, Prosecuting Attorneys, executive and administrative departments, the various State institutions, the payment of interest on bonds, etc., and for the erection of tablets to the memory of Indiana soldiers who fell at Gettysburg.
Providing that in cities of loss than 10,000 inhabitants the County Auditor and Treasurer shall levy and collect the city taxes and turn them over to the proper city officers.
Regulating the practice of medicine, surgery obstetrics, and providing for the issuing of licenses to practice by the County Clerk.
Legalising certain records in the offices of County Recorders
Appropriating $2,500 to pay on lightening-rod claim of David R. Munson.
Amending an act creating and defining the Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Forty-seventh Judicial Circuits, and fixing the length of term and time of holding courts therein and providing for the appointment of a Judge of the Forty-seventh Circuit; for the appointment of Prosecuting Attorneys for the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Circuits, and declaring an emergency.
Providing a means of keeping in repair certain gravel roads, pursuant to an act of March 8, 1875.
Amending Section 2,455 of the Revised Statutes of 1881, providing that appeal bond shall be filed in less than ten days after the decision is made, unless the court, for good cause shown, shall direct it to be filed within one year.
Relieving Calvin J. Jackson, of Hancock County, who lost $1,999.70 State money by the failure of the Indiana Banking Company.
Distributing undistributed money in the Treasury of the town of Clinton, Vermillion County.
Amending Section 318 of the statutes of 1881 so that in certain civil cases where the defendant can not be reached, a notice of the date and nature of suit shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation.
Concerning gravel and macadamized roads.
Incorporating the town of Washington, Wayne County.
Relieving Jesse A. Avery, Cornelius B. Wadsworth, William B. Flick, William H. Speer, Robert N. Harding, Israel Connarroe, Joseph L. Hunton, Thomas W. Janeway, Chris Grube and Harvey R. Mathews, Trustees of the several townships of Marion County, of the responsibility for various sums of township money lost by the failure of banks.
Concerning the election, compensation and duties of the Attorney General of the State.
Appropriating $10,000 for the relief of Mrs. Sarah J. May.
Legalising the incorporation of the town of Laconia, Harrison County.
page: 180[View Page 180]Fixing the time for holding court in the Tenth Judicial Circuit.
Amending Section 3,333 of the Revised Statutes of 1881 concerning the incorporation of towns
Legalizing certain assessments for the construction of the Bluffton and Bedford and Bluffton and Warren gravel roads.
Legalizing the incorporation of the town of Bourbon, Marshall County.
Fixing the time of holding courts in the Thirty-sixth Judicial Circuit.
Legalizing the incorporation of the town of Ambia, Benton County.
Appropriating $3,900 to maintain the Indiana exhibit at New Orleans.
Legalizing the incorporation of the Union Loan and Savings Company of Marion County.
Authorizing the levying of a township tax of 1 per cent, to support libraries.
Changing the time of holding court in the Forty-third, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Judicial Circuits.
Legalizing acts of Notaries Public whose commissions had expired.
Appropriating $25,901.64 to pay W. B. Burford for public printing.
Appropriating $1,013 for the payment of a claim of Carlon & Hellenbeck.
Legalizing the appointment and acts of trustees in certain cases.
Appropriating $40,0OO to Purdue University for the years 1883 and 1884.
Amending the act incorporating the town of Vernon, Jennings County.
Appropriating $6,800 for the erection of a new building at the Reform School for Boys.
Regulating the business of building, loan fund and savings associations.
Providing means for securing the health and safety of persons employed in coal mines prescribing penalties for violations and repealing all conflicting laws.
Empowering voluntary associations incorporated under the laws of the State for establishing homes for aged females, to receive into such homes aged men also.
Providing that interest on county bonds may be paid annually or semi-annually.
Prohibiting the importation of foreign contract labor.
Amending the act providing for the organization and perpetuity of voluntary associations.
Prohibiting discriminations by telephone companies.
Authorizing School Trustees to pay out of the special school fund money for real estate purchased for a public library.
Appropriating $3,184.69 to reimburse the city of Indianapolis on account of money expended in the construction of the Reformatory sewer.
Appropriating $16,990.71 for the payment of certain claims of members of the Indiana Legion.
Authorizing Boards of County Commissioners to accept gravel roads and maintain the same.
Amending the law providing for the taxation and registration of dogs.
Amending Section 32 of the election contest law, so as to give the judges the right to examine ballots after the same have been read and announced by the inspectors.
Providing a contingent fund of $2,000 per month to be disbursed by the Superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane.
Requiring plats of new additions to cities or incorporated town to be submitted to Council or Trustees before being recorded.
Authorizing owners of land separated by railroads to construct wagon and driveways over such railroads; also, releasing railroads from liability for stock killing on account of such driveway.
Legalizing a deed for certain land in Randolph County made by Aquilla Jones, as Treasurer of the State, to William M. Lock.
Authorizing the County Treasurer, Auditor and Recorder jointly to accept offers of compromise touching delinquent lands in certain cases by consent of the Auditor of State.
Legalizing the organization of the Zionsville and Pike Township Gravel Road Company.
Allowing County Commissioners of different counties to unite in the purchase of grounds and buildings for an Orphans' Home.
Providing that any person may appeal from a decision of County Commissioners in claims against counties to the Circuit or Superior Courts.
Authorizing universities and colleges to acquire, hold and dispose of real estate.
Regulating weights and measures.
Giving to all people, without regard to race or previous condition, the advantages of restaurants, inns, eating-houses, barber-shops and all places of public accommodation and amusement, and providing penalties for violation.
Authorizing Commissioners of counties with uncompleted Court-houses to issue bonds to raise funds for their completion.
Fixing the time for holding court in the Twenty-Fifth Judicial Circuit.
Authorizing the Councils of cities and Boards of Trustees of incorporated towns to pass and enforce ordinances requiring contractors to receipt estimate records within thirty days after payment of street improvement claims.
Appropriating $1,000 to pay the indebtedness of the State to the estate of Daniel Hough.
Requiring foreign Insurance Companies operating in the State to have a paid up capital of $250,000, of which $100,000 must be invested in stocks created under the laws of the United States, making the auditor of State the attorney of the State on the State's dealing with such companies, empowering him at any time to examine their accounts, and defining the duties of agents of said companies.
Creating and defining the Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Forty-seventh Judicial Circuits, fixing the length of terms and times of holding courts therein, and providing for the appointment of a Judge for the Forty-seventh and a Prosecuting Attorney for the Twenty-second.
Amending the act providing for the appraisement, purchase and conversion of toll roads into free roads
Amending the Justice of the Peace act so as to allow gravel road companies to sue for toll in any township.
Providing for the enrollment of late soldiers, their widows and orphans, by Township Assessors.
Concerning contracts made by the Common Council of cities for grading and improving streets.
Authorizing the Governor to issue a patent to Frank Coffee for certain land in Laporte County.
Releasing the State officers from liability for costs in suits against the State.
